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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 30 Jan 2001

Vol. 529 No. 1

Written Answers. - United Nations Population Fund.

Gay Mitchell

Question:

220 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on allegations made by a person (details supplied) in County Galway concerning Ireland's role in an international organisation. [1009/01]

The United Nations Population Fund – UNFPA – extends assistance to developing countries at their request to help them address reproductive health and population issues. UNFPA is committed by its mandates to the principles of voluntarism. All its programmes of assistance throughout the world are based on the principles of freedom of choice and informed consent. Its guiding policy, as laid down by its Governing Council in 1985, stipulates that UNFPA is "not to provide assistance for abortions, abortion services and abortion related equipment and supplies as a method of family planning".

Ireland has raised with UNFPA allegations relating to supposed support for China's one child policy. UNFPA has given assurances that it does not support this policy. The fund has a voluntary reproductive health and family planning programme in China. This programme operates in the 32 counties where the government of China has suspended its one child policy.

Allegations concerning coerced sterilisation by the Peruvian authorities led to the formation in August 1997 of an independent investigative commission which included representatives of the women's groups that had reported the abuses. In February 1999, after investigating the charges, the commission, in a statement of consensus, found that reports of a "massive and coercive sterilisation programme in Peru" were erroneous and did not reflect the reality of the programme. The Ministry of Health, in an evaluation requested by the commission, had acknowledged that there were cases of Government abuses relating to programme targets, poor quality of services, insufficient counselling to ensure full information and informed choice and a lack of patient follow-up. The Ministry, with UNFPA's support, is implementing a series of measures to guarantee principles of free and informed choice and to improve quality of care.

Far from supporting forced sterilisation in Peru, UNFPA has been instrumental in ensuring that it adheres to the 1994 Cairo international conference on population and development principles of free and informed consent. Those critical of the UNFPA programme may confuse UNFPA activities with policies or alleged policies pursued by countries such as China and Peru. The assumption sometimes made is that UNFPA, because of its co-operation with government authorities, implicitly endorses the coercive aspects of policies espoused by those authorities. The Department of Foreign Affairs can find no evidence to support this argument.

It is estimated that half a million women in the developing world die each year due to pregnancy related causes and that 350 million women have no access to any form of contraception. Ireland Aid has been making annual voluntary contributions to UNFPA since 1993. The money provided by Ireland Aid contributes to UNFPA's efforts, saves the lives of thousands of women each year and helps prevent hundreds of thousands of unwanted pregnancies.

Ireland has just completed a three year term on the executive board of UNFPA. Through its membership of the board, Ireland was able to participate directly in detailed donor discussions on UNFPA's programmes and be in a position to closely monitor UNFPA's performance. Ireland has not ever described its position on the executive board of UNFPA as "honorary". We assumed our position on foot of the regular rotation of donor representatives. The whole point of such a position is to participate actively in policy debate concerning the present and future orientations of the agency in question. At a session of UNFPA's executive board in New York in 1999, the UNFPA programme in Peru was raised with Ireland's support. Membership of the board thus ensures that we have an opportunity to present our views on the operation and performance of the UN agencies and to raise queries on specific issues.
The Department has a sufficient body of information available to it from these sources on which to form an accurate assessment of UNFPA's operations. On the basis of that information, and in the light of specific and repeated assurances from UNFPA, I am satisfied that its operations are conducted in full accordance with the principles of voluntarism.
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